You can browse our full NYC show calendar for all of tonight's shows, but here are some highlights...

Death From Above 1979 @ Rough Trade
Ten years since their the debut album, Canadian band DFA1979 finally get around to making its follow-up, Physical World, which sounds like they haven't skipped a beat. Fuzzed-out bass, disco drumming intact. This is a record release show and the smallest place they've played in NYC in a looong time.

Wavves, Habibi, Big Muff Radio @ Baby's All Right
Wavves have officially gone from lo-fi noisemakers to real-deal pop punks, and the new sound suits them well. And seeing these bangers live is where it's at, especially at a small place like Baby's. Expect wildness.

Pontiak, Jaye Jayle, TBA @ Saint Vitus
Get a double dose of psychedelia at Vitus tonight from Thrill Jockey's Pontiak and Jaye Jayle, the solo project of Young Widows' Evan Patterson, who ditches the heavier sounds of his main band for this one.

Die Antwoord, DJ Cindy Kim @ Irving Plaza
Totally in-your-face eccentrics Die Antwoord are a thing of their own, and tonight's your first of two chances to experience it in the flesh in NYC this week. Tomorrow they're at Terminal 5.

Ask Me Another w/ Gail Simmons @ Bell House
WNYC's "Ask Me Another" is a live radio taping that combines "brainteasers and local pub trivia night with comedy and music." Tonight's special guest is Food & Wine editor and Top Chef host Gail Simmons.

Sweet @ The Slipper Room
Seth Herzog's comedy night Sweet is celebrating its 10th anniversary with three guest-filled shows this week, this is the first. Herzog has promised appearances by Colin Quinn, Hannibal Buress, Vanessa Bayer, Dave Hill, and Questlove at some point during the week, plus "special guests." Who will show up tonight?

The Nothing Changes party goes down every Wednesday night around Midnight at Lower East Side club Home Sweet Home. Tonight (3/19) is a selection of noisy punk courtesy of Japan's System Fucker and Boston's Aspects of War. The duo have been on the road together, hitting up a number of East Coast-ish cities, including a stop at the Acheron earlier this month -- did you go? Expect insanity if you do tonight.

As usual, there's a lot to look forward in the coming weeks at Nothing Changes. Next week (3/26), electronics experimentalist Flex 1000 teams up with DJ Dog Dick, and the week after that (4/2), it's Youthquake and more TBA. Then on April 9, electronica purveyor Ron Morelli (of the label L.I.E.S.) will DJ along with a performance by Uniform which features members of Believer/Law and The Men, and the Nothing Changes show will be the band's debut performance. Further down the line is Nothing Changes' one year anniversary celebration on April 23, featuring coldwave artist Martial Canterel.

Nothing Changes schedule with full lineups are listed, along with flyers below...

Automelodi (aka Montreal's Xavier Paradis) is back with his second album, Surlendemains Acides, which comes out digitally on October 8 and on vinyl November 1 via Electric Voice. The new album is a little more synth noir than the (relatively) poppy sounds heard on Automelodi's terrific 2010 debut, but no less adept with hooks. We've got the premiere of "Digresse," from the album, which you can stream below.

Automelodi will be in NYC to play a record release show next Wednesday (10/9) at Home Sweet Home as part of the Nothing Changes party. Dream Affair are also playing and Martial Canterel will DJ. After that he'll head to Europe for a tour. All dates are listed below.

Belgians A Split-Second will hit NYC for a rare appearance at Drom on December 7 -- their only North American appearance, and first American show in 25 years(!). Tickets are on sale and Crash Course in Science will support. For the unfamiliar, A Split-Second is considered to be a pivotal band in the industrial-related EBM movement, along with names like Front 242, Die Krupps, Nitzer Ebb and others:

After the Belgian synth pop group Extraballe disbanded, Mark Ickx joined up with Chrismar Chayell to form A Split Second, which debuted in 1986 with the dance single "Flesh." The duo quickly took a detour into more industrial sounds with their next single, "Rigor Mortis"; both those tracks and others were compiled on their eponymous debut American EP, which followed their first Belgian album, 1987's Ballistic Statues, by a year. A Split Second's sound had by now coalesced into a mix of programmed industrial beats, synthesizers, heavily distorted guitars, and alternately melodic and vicious vocals; unsurprisingly, they were signed in America to the Wax Trax! label, which issued From the Inside in 1988. A number of singles and EPs followed on both Wax Trax! and the Belgian Antler-Subway label, some later taken from the 1990 album Kiss of Fury, which found the group switching to Caroline for U.S. distribution. Little new material was heard from A Split Second until 1995, when the duo returned with Vengeance.

You can stream a few A Split-Second tracks below..

Crash Course in Science, meanwhile, recently headlined Le Poisson Rouge with a little help from Xeno & Oaklander, and belated pictures from that performance on August 8 are available below.

And speaking of Xeno & Oaklander, you can check out the pair at Union Pool on September 13 with Bootblacks and Tempers, part of the ongoing RITUALS series. Tickets are on sale. As mentioned, the pair have a new video for an LP out this fall.

Last but not least, catch the-X&O-related-band Martial Canterel at Cameo on August 31, when he headlines the space with Figure Study, Forma and Hot Guts (tickets).

More pics from LPR and a selection of tracks by A Split Second are below...

Portland's deathrock/gothic post-punk band Bellicose Minds are on their way up to Montreal for the punk festival Varning (more on that in a sec), but will spend their Halloween in NYC. Joining DJs Gabby, Caleb and Pre Op Trans, look for Bellicose Minds to hit Home Sweet Home on 10/31 as part of the weekly WIERD party and their first visit to NYC.

For the unfamiliar, Montreal's Varning Festival (11/1 - 11/3) goes down at Katacombes. Featuring punk rock in many different incarnations, the fest will feature appearances from Zyanose, Belgrado (Spain), Hank Wood and the Hammerheads, Spectres, Aspects of War, Zatsuon, Sad Boys and many more, including the final Peligro Social show. Full lineup is below.

Speaking of, as discussed, Japanese noise-punks Zyanoseplay Acheron on 11/10. Spectres and Crimson Scarlet, who also bless the Varning lineup, both play Acheron on Friday (10/26).

And in related news, NYC's Sad Boys have joined on to a bill with Perdition, Austin's Criaturas, Bortgang, Spine, and La Mismaat 177 Stockholm tomorrow (10/25). Should be a fun night of raging punk.

Tonight (10/24), meanwhile, look for WIERD to host the great gothic synth-pop of Martial Canterel.

The Varning lineup, video of Bellicose Minds, Criaturas and Zyanose are below.

Iceage finished a round of NYC shows with a performance at Le Poisson Rouge last night (7/22), appealing to their more gothic tendencies with appearances from Dirty Beaches, Martial Canterel and Rosenkopf. The previous night (7/21) showcased Iceage's punk roots, featuring a gang of bands all hellbent on 285 Kent's destruction that night: Nomad, Bortgang, Sad Boys and Goosebumps. Pictures from the awesome Le Poisson Rouge show are below.

Iceage is currently tearing through the US and recently made a stop at Mohawk in Austin (pictures) and the Pitchfork Festival (ditto). All remaining dates and pictures from LPR are below.

Dark synth pop trio Led Er Est are in the midst of an East coast tour that kicked off at Public Assembly during Norhtside. If you missed them, luckily they are back in the city and will play a two shows over the next two weeks including tonight at Home Sweet Home (6/20, part of the WIERD party) with DJ sets from Miz Margo, Max Labor, & Frankie Teardrop. The band will then play NYC again at XPO 929 on June 30th (tickets) with the great Martial Canterel and you can look for a Shawn O'Sullivan (of Led Er Est) solo set on 6/28 at Loreley. A full listing of tour dates are below.

Led Er Est released their new LP The Diver via Sacred Bones on May 15th. Check out two songs and a video from said release below, alongside a listing of all tour dates.

Brooklyn synth goths Xeno and Oaklander have an upcoming local show this week at Public Assembly on Friday (5/11) with Frank (Just Frank), and DJ sets by Bauhaus/Love & Rockets bassist David J, CREEP and Todd Pendu. (There's also an open Asahi beer bar at 9:30.) Tickets are still available.

RØSENKØPF also plays Glasslands with King Dude soon, in celebration of a new record. That record has a song called "Light The Way" which has a video which you can watch below.

In addition to DJing the Friday Public Assembly show, David J is also DJing tonight (5/10) at Elmurst club Arena Queens. Besides his gigs in Bauhaus and Love & Rockets (and Porno for Pyros and The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy), David J has a long solo career as well, having released his eighth album, Not Long for This World, last year on Starry Records. You can stream some of it here.

After blessing NYC (with a full band) earlier this month, King Dude will return to NYC to play Glasslands on July 5th, with RØSENKØPF, and Italian Horn, and DJ sets by Ryan Dais & Pieter Wierd. Tickets are on sale for what will be a stop before King Dude continues to Europe for a tour.

Iceage, already on board for Primavera Sound, Pitchfork, and Chaos in Tejas, have announced an additional set of dates surrounding their Pitchfork appearance that will include dates around the East Coast including a pair of NYC shows: 285 Kent on July 21st and Le Poisson Rouge on July 22nd with Rosenkopf & Marital Canterel. Advance tickets for LPR are on sale. Ticketing info and sopport for the 285 Kent show are still forthcoming.

Chaos in Tejas (May 31-June 3 in Austin) have announced ANOTHER batch of bands to add to their ridiculous lineup including Saint Vitus, Church of Misery, No Statik, Toys That Kill, Pegasus, Martial Canterel, Anasazi, Bloodwing (mems of The Spits, who are on tour soon), Harm's Way, Hatred Surge, the Hex Dispensers, John Wesley Coleman, Joyce Manor, and many many others. The current full lineup and flyer is below and tickets are FINALLY going on sale TODAY (1/31).

Doom legends Saint Vitus are currently preparing their new LP Lillie: F-65 for Season of Mist. The record, their eighth and first in seventeen years (!), is tentatively set for release at the end of March. More details are forthcoming.

Chicago's masters of blackened ambiance, Locrian, headlined a smoke-filled Europa on Sunday (4/17) with Martial Canterel, Blacklist, and Gnaw. The show was a rare East Coast appearance for Locrian, who will swing through Milwaukee on June 11th to play the Utech Records Festival alongside names like Mamiffer, Horseback, Ithi (who play NYC on 5/11), and many others.

Locrian recently released a video for "Elevations & Depths" which is viewable below, along with Locrian's Europa set list and more pictures from the whole show...

In addition to being Black History Month, National Bird Feeding Month and National Sweet Potato Month, February also seems to consistently have a lot of band residencies. You may already be aware of ones by ARMS (who I'll get to shortly) and Yellow Ostrich, but I'd also like to point out that up-and-coming Brooklyn indie rock band Gross Relations starts a three-week Tuesday residency tonight (2/8) at Bruar Falls.

Gross Relations have been going less than a year, but seem to have a clear idea with what they want to sound like. Like Mr. Dream and Diehard, the band shares a love of '90s indie rock. With the prominent keyboard lead lines (or maybe it's heavily-treated guitar?) on both sides of their "Fuzzy Timelines" 7", it's pretty easy to make comparisons to The Rentals, but the band they really remind me of is Chicago's late, great Number One Cup.

Either way, it's a good thing. Gross Relations write some majorly catchy songs. You can download the b-side to their single at the top of this post. Tonight's residency also features The Toothaches (whose debut album is a free download), Gone Bad, and NT.

I mentioned ARMS briefly above who are on Week Two (2/9) of their February Wednesdays residency at Pianos. Todd Goldstein and the rest of the band are finishing up work on their debut album (Kids Aflame was more of a Todd solo thing) with Shane Stoneback (Vampire Weekend, Sleigh Bells). So expect a lot of new songs, I'd imagine. Todd says of the record, "It's a vast, hi-fi album. We're doing everything we can to take full advantage of the studio... the songs are very poppy and a little weird, there are lots of beautiful/scary textures, copious-but-thoughtful use of reverb... sequenced into a song-cycle, a sort of sci-fi breakup album." ARMS are hoping to have it out by the summer.

This week's residency is especially strong I think. It includes the lovely Hospitality, who finally seem to be getting down to business, having wrapped up their long-gestating debut album (also with Stoneback) which could be out as early as the spring. Let's hope! Singer Amber Papini promises a couple new songs at the show.

Also playing: Radical Dads, whose new single is a free for you (with email address) via the increasingly popular Download Widget (found below). And Translations (who share a member with ARMS) open who I am super psyched to finally be seeing live after months of digging their debut 7".

Show's eight bucks, will be a good one.

Martial Canterel

Also Wednesday is the record release party for Martial Canterel'sYou Todaywhich came out today on Wierd Records. The show is part of Wierd's weekly Wednesday night party at Home Sweet Home. The flyer says performance at midnight, but I've never seen a band go on there before 1AM.

Martial Canterel is the non de synth of Sean McBride who is also one half of Xeno & Oaklander. McBride is kind of a luddite, making his records entirely on vintage equipment that was probably cutting-edge technology in 1980. Obviously it sounds very retro, but McBride's way of doing things also gives it a sound -- and authenticity -- you can't quite replicate on a laptop. Check out the title track at the top of this post. And if you dig that, also up there is a free downloadable Martial Canterel retrospective, including some rare songs.

Anika

In town this weekend is Anikawhose debut album was a late-breaking entry into my Favorite Albums of 2011. Recorded in 12 days, live with no overdubs, it sounds like the missing link between The Slits and Lilliput. Portishead's Geoff Barrow -- his other band BEAK> is the backing band here -- gets the claustrophobic vibe just right. A lot of people have tried and failed to recreate that Martin Hannett Sound... Barrow nails it. And the material -- a mix of girl group covers and politically-charged originals -- suits Anika's Nico-esque delivery perfectly.

You can download two tracks from the album at the top of this post. "Yang Yang" is a Yoko Ono cover, and "Terry" was originally recorded by Twinkle, who is probably best-known for having made the original version of "Golden Lights" that was later covered by The Smiths. (Many Smiths fans' least favorite track, but not mine. That would be "Never Had No One Ever.") The album sort of snuck out at the end of 2011, so catch up now. So good.

Don't get too excited though, Anika is just over for some DJ gigs -- I'm hearing we'll get her performing in May (and probably later at ATP) -- but I'd recommend checking one of them out nonetheless. Especially as three of them are free: on Thursday (2/10) she'll be at Gallery Bar with Blu Jemz, then Saturday (2/12) at Trophy Bar and a Valentine's Day set (2/14) at The Commodore. The remaining three NY DJ appearances are atMercury Lounge tomorrow night (2/9) spinning between sets at the Cubic Zirconia show (tickets), and Glasslands on Friday (2/11) where she'll spin in between sets by Javelin, High Life, & Monster Rally (tickets), and finally Santos Pary House on 2/16 as part of the previously discussedBeans show with Edan, Paten Locke & Bluebird (tickets).

That's the big stuff this week. Some more picks, day-by-day, are below.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8

Gang of Fourat Webster Hall, though really it's more like Gang of Two as it's just Jon King and Andy Gill from the original line-up these days. Their new album, Content, isn't bad. But most people will go to hear "To Hell With Poverty," "At Home He's a Tourist," and other classics. And while Hugo and Dave will be missed, Andy Gill is still amazing to watch spit out those riffs, and Jon King remains possessed on stage -- especially when he's beating the shit out of a microwave on "He'd Send in the Army."

Land of Decay have dropped the second release from Sun Splitter, a four-track release of killer ambient doom with touches of industrial music. Originally released on CD-R, the cassette features art from Locrian's Terence Hannum (who's art show opens today in Chicago) and is limited to 100 copies, so snag one of these ASAP via the label. Check out two tracks from the release: "Northern Blood Tithe" which is downloadable above and appears for the first time here, and "Earth Burner" which is streamable along with "Northern Blood Tithe" below.

Meanwhile just across town, another band of Chi-city ruffians are preparing a release of their own. Chicago's The Swan King have signed to Seventh Rule and will release their newest LP Eyes Like Knives on February 22nd. Featuring current and former members of Planes Mistaken for Stars, Asschapel, and Circle of Animals (that also features Bruce Lamont, who is on tour with his Led Zeppelin cover band), the band's newest LP was recorded by Sanford Parker and features the trio fusing riffy and mathy hardcore with High On Fire-style tones. Check out "Staring Through Skulls" available for download above and streaming below, and while you're at it, make sure and get the band's The Good Deeds EP which is currently available for free. It kills.

No more tour dates for either band, but all song streams and more details on The Swan King's Eyes Like Knives are below.

Synthy Montreal Automeloditrio are visiting NYC this week, playing two shows: Wednesday, July 21 at Home Sweet Home, and then Friday, July 23 at Glasslands.

I'm not sure I understand the differences between darkwave, coldwave, minimal wave, minimal synth and what have you, but am a fan of the bands and scene to whom they owe a debt. (Think early Mute Records, OMD, Dalek I Love You, French New Wave, etc) The problem with a some of it for me -- and it's a problem with many sonically-specific genres -- is that aesthetics can come before songcraft.

Not so with Montreal's Automelodi who most definitely are channeling 1981 but have songs as well-crafted as their haircuts. I heard them for the first time last November while attending M for Montreal and have been listening to their self-released EP ever since. A couple of those EP tracks have resurfaced on Automelodi's debut which was released last week on Wierd Records, which is kind of the label for this scene. Main man Xavier Paradis knows his way around a hook, and fleshes the production out just enough to keep things interesting. That most of the songs are in French adds to the sophisticated, enigmatic vibe. It's a solid album start-to-finish. Have a listen to "Buanderie Jazz" at the top of this post and there's a video for "Schéma Corporel" below.